


steal your heart

by orphan_account



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Feelings Realization, Forehead Kisses, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Kissing, Mutual Pining, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Archie pulled the window open and leaned his head out, “You could’ve texted instead of throwing rocks at my window.” He says, smiling softly at her. If anyone else had woken him up during the middle of the night and was throwing rocks at his window, he probably would’ve kicked their ass, but it was Betty and there was absolutely no way he would ever be mad at her.“And what fun would that have been?” She answers, shoveling her hands inside of the pockets of her jacket. “Were you asleep?”[or my own extended version of what would’ve happened after that barchie scene.]
Relationships: Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge (background), Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones (background)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 70





	steal your heart

**Author's Note:**

> #BARCHIEENDGAME. no but seriously, i stopped watching riverdale a loooong time ago but i saw the barchie stills from the episode and i was hooked back in. i watched the episode last night and that last scene of them reeled me back in on my barchie bullshit and i’m not mad about it. i’m glad they’re a slowburn for now bc it’s keeping me on my toes about the possibility of how they’re gonna get together in the future. honestly they have so much chemistry it’s just too good not to write about, so alas this fic was created. 
> 
> warning, i haven’t watched the show in a while so i might not be on the nose of what happened canonically on the show. i remember a few vague details from previous seasons, and from scenes i’ve seen online so bear with me about the accuracy of some things, okay. 
> 
> again, this is just pure fiction created from my mind. (if there are any varchie or bughead shippers reading this, cease your fire. we know your ships are currently (😏) endgame!

Archie laid sprawled out across his bed, an arm was tucked behind his head, his eyes stared vacantly at the cream colored ceilings of his bedroom wall. The timbre of his phone pinging on his nightstand retracts Archie from his deep, inward reverie. 

He assumed that it was Betty, usually whenever she was experiencing insomnia, they would text or stay on the phone with each other all night as a way to distract themselves. Given today’s events of having to foolishly fool the entire town about the macabre death of her boyfriend and his best friend, Jughead, well Archie wouldn’t be surprised if Betty was shaken up by that and that she was calling him to seek solace in. 

Propping himself up on his elbows as he reaches over the nightstand, Archie picks up his phone and presses the home button to see who he’d just received a message from. He was surprised to see that it wasn’t from Betty; instead from his raven haired beauty of a girlfriend, Veronica asking if he was still awake. 

Pursing his lips together in thought, Archie declined on replying back to her message. Her texting him at this late of an hour only meant one thing, he’s known her salacious behavior long enough to comprehend the meaning of her unsubtle innuendos. And while he enjoyed every sexual endeavor with his girlfriend, he wasn’t particularly in the mood for it tonight. 

Sighing softly, Archie leans back over to return his cellphone onto its previous position on his nightstand. In doing so, he leaned upwards a bit glancing over at Betty’s house next door. The lights in her bedroom were off even the little lamp she used for reading at night. _Huh_. Guess she didn’t have any trouble falling to sleep after all. 

Glancing over at the clock on his nightstand, he sees that it’s getting late. Knowing that he has to be up early tomorrow morning, Archie decides to finally go to sleep so that he wouldn’t be too exasperated. Plopping back onto his bed, Archie rests his head against the fluffy softness of his pillow and snuggled underneath the covers. He shifted around a bit until he found a comfortable sleeping position. 

Just as he started to flutter his eyes close to lull into a deep slumber, he’s being roused by a light tapping sound. Archie opens his eyes and sits up, curiously wondering where the noise was coming from. 

_Tap_. _Tap_. Furrowing his eyebrows together, Archie absentmindedly tossed the covers aside as he clambered out of bed, following the sound of the erratic noise. He chuckled softly and shook his head in amusement when he walks over to his window to see Betty standing outside. She was still dressed in her pajamas, albeit now wearing a thin pullover jacket to cover her arms from the chilly weather. 

She smiled up at him, brought her hand up mid-air for a wave. 

Archie pulled the window open and leaned his head out, “You could’ve texted instead of throwing rocks at my window.” He says, smiling softly at her. If anyone else had woken him up during the middle of the night and was throwing rocks at his window, he probably would’ve kicked their ass, but it was _Betty_ and there was absolutely no way he would ever be mad at her. 

“And what fun would that have been?” She answers, shoveling her hands inside of the pockets of her jacket. “Were you asleep?”

“Nah, I was having trouble falling asleep.” He answers half-heartedly, to which Betty only nods her head. He sees her body shivering and she further curls herself in the warmth of her jacket. 

“Wanna come in?” He asks, knowing that she was probably freezing standing out there.

Betty looks up at him and falters slightly, as if she was contemplating his offer. But then she smiles and nods her head, “Sure, Arch.” 

He closes the window shut and sits at the edge of the bed waiting for her to come up. He hears the sound of the back door opening, followed by the light sounds of her gait as she walks up the stairs. “You really need to find a new hiding spot for your spare key.” She joked once she entered the room. 

She walked past him in favor of sitting down at his desk chair. Archie raises a brow in question. Betty knows he’s wondering why she hadn’t sat next to him on the bed but she really didn’t feel like explaining to him that she felt uncomfortable sitting on the bed where he and Veronica have had sex on. It felt too weird, especially because Veronica was always sharing the explicit details of their sexual trysts with her. 

It probably seemed childish, but anytime she’d thought about her two friends having sex a weird, uneasy feeling crept down her spine. 

“What?” She asked innocently, acting completely oblivious to the knowing stare he was giving her. 

“I changed the sheets. There’s no Veronica smell or anything else on the bed. You can sit over here if you want.” Archie states with a half shrug and Betty feels a rosy pink blush coloring her cheeks in chagrin at the fact that he knew the reason of her apprehension. 

Of course he knew, Archie always knew. 

“Sorry,” She sighs, shaking her head as she buried her face within the palm of her hands, still trying to hide the embarrassment that was evident on her face. “I didn’t mean to—I shouldn’t have—” She stammers, which only makes her blush deepen. Betty inwardly chides herself for her flushing behavior; why was she suddenly acting like a giddy schoolgirl with a crush? Why was she acting so nervous around him? It’s _Archie._

She’s retracted from her thoughts by the light sounds of Archie’s throaty chuckle, “It’s okay, Betts. So, what are you doing up?” He curiously inquires, purposefully subverting the topic of conversation for both of their sakes because it felt awkward talking about his sex life with Veronica to Betty, and Betty looked like she was about to implode of visible embarrassment.

“Same as you. Couldn’t sleep. I texted Jug earlier but I guess he’s already asleep.” Betty answers, tucking her leg underneath her body as shifts in the desk chair. She swivels the chair around so that she’s fully facing him. “Do you ever wonder what it would be like if our lives were normal?” 

Archie chortles abruptly, nodding his head. “Yeah. It seems like we never really get the chance to be regular teenagers, there’s always something going on.” He sighs. 

It was crazy to think that this was their lives; having to deal with psychopathic murderers, vicious boardgames that lead to the deaths of teenagers, Hiram’s scam to control Riverdale – Archie would’ve never thought that this was what he would be dealing with at the prime age of sixteen. 

“Yeah,” Betty agrees somberly, “Seems like everything was easier when we were kids.” 

Archie smiled at the reminiscing nostalgence of his childhood; he remembered how he and Betty did everything together, how they were practically joined at the hip when the most of their worries were only figuring out whose house they were spending the weekend over at. When things were easy and when they were innocent, when there weren’t significant others inserted in the picture. 

When it was just them: Betty and Archie. It would be a lie to say that he didn’t miss those days with just the two of them and how close they were. While he loved Ronnie and Jughead, sometimes Archie wishes—

“Do you remember when you proposed to me?” Archie blinks, surprised by the sudden inquiry. 

He nods his head as a wide smile spreads across his lips, “What I remember is you rejecting my proposal. Betty Cooper, breaker of hearts at age eight. Who would’ve thought?” Archie playfully surmises, and Betty only rolls her eyes in response. 

“We were too young, besides, I did you a favor. I would have made a terrible wife.” Betty joked heartedly, both of them smiling widely with mirth.

“No, you would have been the perfect wife, Betty.”

The room suddenly transitions into a comfortable silence, peering up at her underneath his eyelashes, Archie could see Betty writhing her hands together, an idiosyncrasy that she only did when she was nervous or upset about something. 

“You okay, Betts?” 

Glancing up at him, she parts her mouth open then hastily snaps it back shut after a brief moment of trepidation. Tightly pursuing her lips together in thought, Betty shrugs her shoulders before saying, “When we were pretending earlier,” She begins and Archie feels his heart nervously fluttered as he waited for her to continue. “And we kissed, Jug he asked me if I felt something for you,” Her eyes flickered up at his momentarily, his breath hitches. 

He wants to ask what her response was, the words are right on the tip of his tongue but he relents, not wanting to appear too eager at the thought of her dormant feelings for him that she obtained for him years ago, had resurfaced again. He already knows her answer; _no_ — she was with Jughead. The boy who she helped fake his own death just to keep him safe. 

Of course she didn’t feel anything for Archie, she was too in love with Jughead to ever think about someone else. And he had Veronica, so there was no reason for him to be nervous about the possible next words that were going to come out of her mouth. 

But he was. 

“I told him no.” _Of course_. He inwardly thinks to himself, trying to maintain a normal facade in hopes of not letting his disappointment show all over his face. 

“Yeah, uh, Ronnie kinda asked me the same thing too. Guess they were worried that we were getting a little too comfortable pretending to like each other, huh?” He quips jovially, shrugging his shoulder insouciantly. 

The room transcended into a hushed silence again, until: “What did you tell her?” Betty asks quietly, the tenor of her voice is just above a shy whisper.

Gandering over at her as she sat athwart from him, he swears he could see a piqued look of hopeful glistening in her eyes as she stared back at him waiting for his response, maybe it was just his foolish naivety playing a cruel joke on him. 

“Why’d you tell me that? About Jughead?” He asks, intentionally ignoring her question. He wants to know her reason, they were texting earlier. She could’ve mentioned it then but she didn’t she waited until she got here. In his bedroom. With him. Alone. 

Worrying her bottom lip between the grasp of her teeth, Betty diverted her gaze away, lowering her eyes down to her folded hands that sat on her lap. 

“I don’t—” She sighs softly and shrugs. “I guess I thought telling you about it would make me feel less... _guilty_.” She murmurs softly, her shoulders sag in solemnity. He doesn’t have to ask what she felt guilty about, because he already knows. It’s the same wretched feeling of guilt that ate at him too when he easily lied to Veronica when she asked if he’d felt anything for Betty when they kissed. 

“Is that why you can’t sleep?” She nods her head silently. 

“I’m a terrible person aren’t I? Feeling something for another boy, my best friend’s _boyfriend_ when I’m already in a relationship.” She laments in exasperation, shaking her head in disgust at her traitorous thoughts of affection. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to her Veronica or Jughead, which is why she so desperately tried to ignore her lingering feelings for Archie that suddenly came back. 

When they kisses inside the music room, when she leaned in for another kiss and pressed her mouth against his, she felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. She felt herself wanting to deepen the kiss, curl her fingers through his dark red hair and pull him closer until their bodies were pressed flush up against each other’s but she knew that she couldn’t. 

She couldn’t betray two people she cared about just because some silly feelings were ascending again. Betty felt absolutely _horrible_ lying straight in Jughead’s face when she denied her feelings for Archie. 

“Hey, no, no. Betty,” Archie quickly assured her as he clambered off of the bed and hastily knelt down on the floor in front of her. He reached up and grabbed her hand, gently stroking his thumb across her knuckles. “Betty, look at me please.” He whispers. 

She blinks away a few tears, sniffling lowly before slowly meeting his gaze. Archie smiled sheepishly at her as he thumbed away her tears. “You’re the most amazing person that I know, okay? There’s no way that you could ever be a terrible person. I know this, between us is confusing but I feel the same way about you. I always have, I just didn’t realize until it was too late but I like you, Betty.” _I_ _love_ _you_ , _Betty_. He says, his words are adamant and precise as he speaks softly to her. 

“Maybe this isn’t the right time for us, but I’ve waited this long and I’m willing to wait again, however long until you’re completely sure of what you want to do. I’m all in.” 

Archie knows that their admitting confessions of affection for each other would only inevitably end up hurting Veronica and Jughead, but he was tired of denying his feelings. He loved Betty, he was in love with her. He didn’t want to ignore those feelings about her for anyone else. Of course he would never intentionally hurt his best friend or his girlfriend, which is why he wanted to wait. Until the timing was right. Archie didn’t exactly know when that time would be but, he was willing to wait however long until he could finally ask Betty to be his girlfriend. 

“Thanks, Arch. You always know how to make me feel better.” Betty smiled, wiping away the remnants of her tear stained face with the back of her hand. 

“What are best friends for, right? Since we’re both having trouble sleeping, d’you wanna watch a movie? I’ll let you pick.” 

“Ooh, let’s watch Aquamarine! Here I’ll make the popcorn and you start the movie up.” She orders, grabbing ahold of his hand and dragging him down the stairs.

They spend the rest of the night cuddled together on the couch; her small body curled against his, her head rested gently against his chest as her body rose and fell with each soft breath that she inhaled and exhaled. Archie chuckled softly, as he stared down at the sleeping blond that laid in his arms; Betty Cooper, his best friend, the girl that he was in love with. 

Archie didn’t know what the future held, but he hoped that he’d still have Betty right beside him. “G’night, Betts.” He whispers, pecking a kiss on top of her forehead before fluttering his eyes close and succumbing to his exhaustion. 

**Author's Note:**

> there might be grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes!


End file.
